June 23 - Follow Up Research Meeting

Projects - Elections Reform

Written by Michael Yaroshefsky

Tuesday, 23 June 2009 10:20

At today’s meeting, the USG Elections Advisory Committee convened to hear a report given by Matt Immordino. Matt started by noting that after his research since the last meeting, he concluded that there does not currently exist a solution that could be purchased that would adequately match our requirements. Therefore, in order to meet our requirements, we are likely going to need to develop a custom system.

Next, Matt gave an overview of what other members of the Ivy Plus college administrators’ forum reported. At MIT, for example, they still use paper ballots. At Stanford the elections are done via an electronic system not much unlike the one we currently have, a system where the candidate’s statement and photograph do not appear on the ballot. These were the only two responses received from Ivy Plus.

Then, I added some information that I learned by speaking with a friend of mine on the Ivy Council from Yale, Rustin Fakheri. Rustin explained that Yale uses a system that is remarkably close to what we would like to have. Yale’s election system resides on their YaleStation website, a system much like our own Point – a student-built, student-serving portal for campus events, news, and communications.

Like Princeton Point, YaleStation, and the integrated Yale voting system, was designed by a student on the Yale College Council (abbreviated YCC, analogous to our USG). When the student originally designed the system, he did not charge for his work. However, he later created a web application programming company, and he now charges for maintaining the system.

Given this development, I was able to once again advocate having a student or former student (collectively, from now on, just “student”) develop the system. It appeared last time that this option was impracticable based on concerns by other members of the committee, but now Yale sets a powerful precedent. If Yale had a student develop their voting system, and they have been using it reliably for the past few years already, that speaks volumes about the ability of a student to develop a system of this caliber and for this purpose.

I am convinced based on the quality of work I have seen from students (Point, Room Draw Guide, Student Course Guide, the forthcoming Princeton Textbook Exchange) that a student can certainly develop web systems as good or even better than the professionals.

Although professionals may have more experience, students are more in-tune with the usability features that our generation has come to expect – simplicity and fluidity. Also, whereas professionals will be charging fair rates for their work, as they rightfully should, a student will gladly work for less. And quite frankly, a Princeton student may even be more meticulous and deliver a higher-quality solution than a professional because A) Princeton students are usually perfectionists and B) a student would have a personal vested interest in developing the system to improve Princeton and build his reputation to generate future business opportunities.

Of course, this isn’t to say that I wouldn’t support working with a professional development company. There are numerous advantages to that route, too, from the developer’s insight that comes with doing this for a living, to the accountability of a company to stand behind its product. However, in order to compete with a student developer for this project, a professional developer has to be able to match or exceed a student’s affordability, flexibility, and use of cutting-edge interfaces and designs.

After everyone had adequately discussed the options we now had before us, we decided to go about selecting a developer via a competitive bidding process using a Request For Proposal (RFP, also Request For Quotation, RFQ). The process involves us developing the RFP document that outlines requirements for the project. Then, within a certain bidding period, developers may respond to the RFP, indicating the cost at which they will develop the system and which of the requirements they will be able to meet.

This RFP process will allow developers to respond to a uniform request, which means we can then evaluate them all fairly. In addition, the process allows all types of developers to respond: students, freelancers, professionals.

Unfortunately, this will now add about 1 month of processing and delay, since after we publish the RFP we have to wait at least 2 weeks for responses. Then, once again, we’ll have to convene to review the bidders and select one. Finally, after we have chosen the developer, we can begin developing the system, which may ironically be simpler than choosing how to develop the system.

The current timeline for this is to have an RFP ready for review on Wednesday, July 1, to be published the next day. Then, we will give bidders approximately two weeks to respond. Once the open application process closes, we will individually review the applicants and the convene the committee to choose one. The tentative date for this meeting is Tuesday, July 21.

Although I’m disappointed that we are getting bogged down by the process, I am exceedingly glad that we have the support of so many extraordinary members who are all so dedicated to the process. The September 15th unofficial deadline is approaching quickly, but I am still hopeful that we will have at the very least a new voting system with some of the bells and whistles ready. Luckily, the October election is the 2013 class government election which is our smallest election. Then, we can continue adding to the system between then and the next election, the Winter 2009 USG election in which positions such as USG President, Vice President, and all of the senatorial seats are up for reelection. My fingers are crossed for a smooth election year, even with the new system making its debut.

Princeton Undergraduate Student Government

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